


The Good In You

by Ace1437



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marauders - Fandom, Marauders Era - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Roommates, Sexual Confusion, Sexual Experimentation, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Talking, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25270615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ace1437/pseuds/Ace1437
Summary: When James, Remus and Peter are just about to go out, a mishap on Peter's side forces James to go back into their dorm, where Sirius is waiting. Neither were prepared for the conversation they're about to have.
Relationships: James Potter/Sirius Black
Kudos: 21





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is my first time posting any of my original fanfic work, I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know in the comments what you think of it and if you'd want to read on.  
> Have fun!

„Wormtail, you bloody idiot!“  
The words echoed through the common room. James had been just about ready to go when Peter ruined his white shirt by spilling their last bottle of firewhisky all over it. The dress shirt was singed and smelled of ash and there was no way the bouncer was going to let him in dressed like this. And even if he did, he couldn’t have Evans seeing him like this. „Tell me again why we shouldn’t leave you here tonight“, he threatened.  
„Prongs, calm down“, Remus chimed in. „It’s not like he did it on purpose. I’m sure you laid out a bunch of options for tonight anyhow, why don’t you just go upstairs and grab one of those.“  
„You think you’re so smart, don’t you?“, he mumbled.  
Peter had holed himself up into the corner of the sofa, his guilty conscience causing him to squeak in a high-pitched voice: „I’m so sorry, James, honestly. Just tell me what I can do-“ „I’ll tell you what you can do", James cut him off, "you can go upstairs and grab your bloody Cleansweep and then come back down here and stick it right up your-“  
„Merlin, James, come off it“, Remus intervened. „It’s fine Pete, just put away the bottle, and try to put the lid on it this time.“  
„It’s not bloody fine, Moony!“, James yelled.  
„What, because you think Lily’s not gonna dance with you because you’re wearing the wrong shirt tonight? Not because she’s not interested, as she’s made clear several times now, each more impressionable than the last?“  
James glared at his friend. He was right, of course, like he always was. But James just wasn’t ready to let the situation deescalate.  
„No“, he said pointedly, „because I can’t bloody go upstairs.“  
James mentally recounted the events from the other night, when he had walked into their room unannounced and gotten a glimpse of something that could not have been meant for him to see. He hadn’t told anyone, of course, not even Remus. Sirius, who had been the only one in the room with him had been at the receiving end of countless confused and uneasy looks.  
„Why the hell can’t you go upstairs?“, Remus mused.  
He couldn’t tell him now, not in the common room of all places. „None of your business, Moony. Back off.“  
Remus raised his eyebrows in confusion but decided to let it go, for now. They had planned to leave at nine thirty but if they continued like this it would be way past and before they’d know it, Filch would be out on patrol and catch them sneaking out through the entrance hall.  
„Why don’t you just put this on“, Remus motioned to a yellow piece of nylon fabric that he had planned to wear but had now been banished to the armchair.  
„You’re kidding, right“, James deadpanned. He turned and started to walk up the stairs. There was another shirt, a red one, sitting in the suitcase under his bed. He really saw no other options, he would have to go in.

It was nine o’clock already and Sirius had excused himself earlier than usual. To read, he had said, and because he’d have an early morning tomorrow. James had known his best friend for, what, six years now? He’d never seen him fall asleep any sooner than midnight, no matter how early the morning, and come on, reading? There was definitely something wrong with that excuse. Seeing what happened the last time he came in unannounced, he was more than a little nervous to knock on the door. But he actually needed his shirt. There was absolutely no way Lily would even so much as consider dancing with him tonight if he wore that hideous excuse for a piece of fabric Remus had come up with. It was made of nylon, for Merlin‘s sake.  
No matter how slowly James made his way toward their room, he eventually arrived and reluctantly knocked on the door.  
„Yeah?“ The answer sounded immediately.  
„Oh“, James hadn’t prepared what he was going to say yet. This idea was getting worse by the second. „It’s me, mate. Can I come in to get my shirt?“  
„Prongs?“  
„Yeah.“  
„What the hell?“, Sirius sounded confused.  
„What do you mean?“  
„What do you mean what do I mean“ he said mockingly. „Come in already.“  
James opened the door slowly, peaking his head in halfway, only allowing his shy gaze to graze the silhouette of Sirius’ body on his bed for a split second, before letting it settle on his face. There was no way what he was seeing was real. There was a half naked, glasses-wearing and utterly disgruntled Sirius looking back at him. The sheets ruffled as he sat up in his bed and put down the book in his hands.  
“Oh, good.” So, Sirius apparently had only turned in early because of an early morning.  
„What is wrong with you?“  
„Huh?“ James replied, taken aback by his forwardness. „It’s nothing, I just need my shirt.“  
„You never knock.“ Sirius stated matter of factly.  
„I know I was just thinking maybe we should start ... announcing ourselves before we come in”, James hawed. “Anyway, I just came in to get my shirt.” Averting his eyes he stumbled over to his bed and pulled out the suitcase from underneath it. It took him a couple of seconds to find his nice shirt in the mess that was his magically enlarged suitcase, all the while feeling Sirius’ eyes burning a whole in the back of his head. “This is weird, mate. You’re being weird. Have been for the past week now, as a matter of fact.”  
“No, I’m not. I’m being perfectly normal. You’re weird.” He got ahold of a dark red piece of fabric, and made his way back to the door, not once looking at his best friend.  
Sirius’ eyes narrowed. „Hold on a sec, mate.“  
James stopped in his tracks, not looking back.  
“This is about the other night, isn’t it?”  
“No, it’s not.” James said, a little too fast.  
Sirius scoffed at his best friend floundering at the door, not daring to look back.  
“I mean, what other night?”  
Sirius huffed out an incredulous breath. He lifted himself out of his bed and walked over to James. “Turn around man, look at me.”  
He felt Sirius’ breath on the back of his neck. Heat turned his cheeks rosy, surely because of how uncomfortable he was.  
“We need to talk about this”, Sirius insisted.  
He remained still as a statue. “I’d rather not, Padfoot.”  
“Fine. Leave, then.” James heard the disappointment in his best friend’s words. He hadn’t intended to hurt him. It was bad enough that he was miserable, no need to pull anybody else into that.  
Sirius took a step back, thinking that was it, when James suddenly moved. He took his time turning around until they finally stood face to face. Sirius gave it another try.  
„If this is about the other night...“  
James flinched at Sirius‘ words.  
„Stop that“ Sirius said. “If this is about what I think it is, I want you to know I take offense to how you’re handling this right now. We’re not kids anymore, so there’s no need to act like one.”  
“Fine.“ James admitted, followed by out a resigned sigh. “You’re right.”  
“I know I’m right, I’m me.”  
James glared at him halfheartedly. “Did you wanna talk or just brag?”  
“Seriously, what’s with the attitude?” Sirius asked but James didn’t reply and kept avoiding his gaze. “Alright, what do you think you saw?”  
James eyes shot up. “Padfoot...”  
He remained silent in an attempt to get the words out of James.  
“I can’t say...”  
Finding the words to say usually wasn’t a problem of his, unless it concerned Evans anyway. Sirius concluded his best friend was probably on the verge of dropping dead of embarrassment. Seeing the panic in his eyes, he decided to put him out of his misery.  
“Right. I’ll walk us through it.”  
James’ cringed but when he didn’t say anything Sirius continued.  
“So, the other night I was in our room alone, much like tonight, while you were out with Remus and Peter. By the way, do stop me if I get any of this wrong.”  
James nodded in his general direction and Sirius continued.  
“After you three spent the evening at the Hog’s Head with your dates, you came back and checked if our room was empty so that you could take whoever it was you were with back here and show her a good time. You came in and saw me putting away a personal item-“  
“Right.” James mocked. “I should have known we weren’t actually going to talk.”  
At that, Sirius lost his patience. The seventeen year old boy who had been too embarrassed to speak about an uncomfortable situation and would have preferred tiptoeing around the issue for the rest of his life now wanted to hear the words come out of his mouth.  
“Really, James? Fine. You saw me put away a dildo. A life sized dick that people use to shove up their arseholes and have an altogether fun time. Was that what you wanted to hear?”  
James was now visibly trembling. So it was true. He hadn’t imagined it. Sirius really had been hiding a ... a dildo in his suitcase when he’d come in.  
“This is fucked up, man. We’re friends. I’m still the same guy I was before you saw me hiding a toy that, mind you, I wasn’t even using when you walked in. I mean, if that were the case I’d understand your being so freaked out, I don’t know if we could recover from something like that, but, like I said, I wasn’t even using it.”  
Sirius didn’t have to say any more in order to send James’ imagination flying. His head was filled with pictures from the scene that had played in his head that night, after he had caught his best friend. When he lay in bed by himself with no one else’s thoughts to disrupt his own from wandering. From wondering what might happen. What Sirius might have been doing before.  
“Just because I have one doesn’t mean I can’t stop myself from shoving it up my arse all hours of the day. And it doesn’t mean that I’m doing anything sexual every time I’m alone in our room. You’re one to talk actually! Do you know how many cold showers I’ve had to take ever since we moved in here together? At first, I was glad you’d stopped wanking in the shower, until I had to catch you in the act after coming out of the shower myself! Three bloody times. Did I ever make such a big fucking deal out of your being a sex-deprived wanking maniac? No. Because I’m a good friend.”  
Sirius stared at the absent-minded look on his best friend’s face in disbelief.  
“There's no way you’re zoning out right now. You have no right to be disgusted by this, by my sex life.”  
“That’s the problem.” James chimed in, but his words only seemed to enrage Sirius even more.  
“What are you saying?”  
“I don’t think I was.” That shut Sirius up.  
A beat of silence passed. “Disgusted, I mean” he added, meekly.


	2. 2

Sirius couldn’t believe his ears. There was no way he had actually heard that coming from his best friend. On the other hand, James looked truly mortified at the words that had just left his mouth. Did that mean...? He mumbled a spell to close the door behind James and put a silent locking charm on it.   
„What are you saying, Prongs?“  
James didn’t know what exactly it was that he was trying to tell Sirius. What he did know was that he was in deep shit. He hadn’t confessed his... confusion... to anyone, not even to himself, really. His heart was beating a mile a minute and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get his legs to move him out of that room.  
Sirius wasn’t sure what was going on. James remained silent, but the expression on his face spoke volumes. For the longest time he didn’t dare look up, but when James got up the courage to look up and their eyes finally met, his heart beat a little faster. That timid look on his best friend’s face wasn’t anything like the James he’d known for ages. This was different. Sirius found himself considering a whole new array of options that this James had just introduced.  
“Does that mean you...” Sirius hesitated, careful not to say anything that would make his friend pull back again, “...you’ve thought about ... stuff like this?”  
There was no point in backtracking now, James knew. It was out, too late to change his mind about it. No way Sirius would ever let him forget about this if he left without an explanation. He had no idea how to get himself out of this one.   
“I mean, who hasn’t... you know, thought about... stuff..., right?”, James conceded, trying to get himself out of the lengthy conversation that was sure to follow. Sirius wasn’t having it.   
“Have you?”, he asked.  
He could lie, sure. But then why had he told him that he wasn’t exactly opposed to the thought of using... certain items... in the first place? Channeling the last bit of strength and dignity that was left in him, he said: “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t.”  
“And you’re not a liar”, Sirius said, not lowering his gaze.  
“Not always, no”, James acknowledged. “Not with you anyway.”  
There it was. The slightest of hints that James might actually want to take this conversation farther. Sirius was going to seize any chance he got at finding out more about this interesting new side of his best friend. He stepped closer, only stopping when he could see the freckles on his cheeks.   
“What have you thought about?”  
James blinked. What hadn’t he thought about? He didn’t know where this was going.   
“What do you mean?”  
Sirius wasn’t going to let him get away that easily. “I mean, what do you think about at night? When you’re alone.” He paused. “Do you think about girls?”  
“Sure”, James said, slowly. “I mean, of course I think about girls.”  
“So, what you meant before - when you said you weren’t a liar - was that you’ve thought about what exactly?” Sirius took another step toward him. “Toys?”  
“Umm”, James hesitated, his breath getting harder to control by the second.  
“Have you thought about... other boys?” Another half step was all it took for their noses to nearly touch. With every breath, he took in the scent of his best friend’s aftershave. He didn’t wait for James to answer this time.   
“Have you thought about me? Using... my toy?”, the last few of his words were hardly more than a whisper.  
James shook his head but his breath hitched in his throat, betraying him.  
Sirius’ eyebrows shot up.  
„Prongs, what’s keeping you?“, a voice sounded from downstairs and pulled the two boys back into reality. James huffed out a breath in relief, while Sirius turned to the side disappointedly. The tension between them had disappeared into thin air. Sirius didn’t want his best friend to see just how much that upset him.  
James took a step back and pried his gaze off Sirius‘ face. „I’ll be right down.“ He turned toward the door, shooting Sirius a questioning look upon realizing it was locked, and swiftly whispered an unlocking charm. „Couldn’t find the bloody shirt“, he said, arriving at the entrance to the common room.   
„Come on, we need to get a move on“, Remus urged him on. „We‘re already late, can’t have Filch catch us again. Three times a week, that’s just embarrassing“, he said to no one in particular.  
James followed behind his friends as they left the Gryffindor tower.


End file.
